Game of Thrones season 8: the feminist detail hidden within the episode 2 pictures

Can you believe that we’re one sixth down, with only five more installments left before we are going to find out who will win the game of thrones and who, to use Cersei’s ominous parlance, will die?

Episode two is just a few short bank holidays away, and HBO has released some first-look images that tease the forthcoming action. There’s Jaime Lannister, ready to stand trial for killing Daenerys’ father the Mad King. There’s Gilly, cuddled up with Sam (and little Sam) in Winterfell. There’s Missandei and Grey Worm in a quiet moment of reflection, perhaps the last time either of them will see the other.

You may also like

26 Game of Thrones fan theories that are almost definitely 100% true

The pint-sized lady of Bear Island – and cousin of my sweet Ser Jorah, knight of the Andals and knight of my heart – has long been one of the most powerful feminist voices on the show. It was Lyanna Mormont’s rousing speeches that have galvanised the men of the North in favour of Jon Snow. And it was Lyanna Mormont’s dissenting voice in episode one that appeared to remind Jon that his people know no king but the king in the North, whose name is Stark.

Lyanna Mormont

Who among us hasn’t wished we could channel some of Lyanna’s steel-edged fierceness and confidence in our everyday lives? Here at Stylist, we not only hold her to be the most feminist character on Game of Thrones, but we’re willing to stake some serious gold coin that she’s one of the few people who make it out of this season alive.

Lyanna’s feminist credentials were only further confirmed in this picture from episode two, which features the leader of Bear Island in a suit of armour.

Did you think that this teenage lady was going to sit out the Battle of Winterfell? The fight against the army of the dead is rumoured to take place in episode three of Game of Thrones, and was filmed across 55 gruelling consecutive night shoots in the Belfast winter. According to Game of Thrones producers, the sequence will be the longest fight scene ever committed to film. And Lyanna Mormont will be there, charging alongside her Northern brothers and sisters.

Daenerys Targaryen

Remember what Lyanna said back in season six, when she pledged her men to fight alongside Jon Snow in the Battle of the Bastards?

“I don’t plan on knitting by the fire while men fight for me,” Lyanna snapped. “I might be smaller, and I might be a girl, but I am every bit a Northerner.”

GoT finale: what will happen to Sansa Stark?

Poring over these episode two pictures, it appears that Lyanna won’t be the only Northern lady suiting up for battle.

Daenerys sports a new blood-red leather overcoat – perfect for riding a dragon – in the new images from the episode, and thought we don’t see Sansa in her battle best, Sophie Turner told Entertainment Weekly that she gets her own suit of armour this season.

“This is the first time I’ve had armour,” Turner told Entertainment Weekly, describing the look as jet-black leather, unlike the resplendent suits seen on Brienne of Tarth or Jaime Lannister.

“We [liked] the idea of it being very protective and she buttons herself up,” Turner explained. “I wanted her to have a bit of armour and be a bit more warrior like. She’s like the warrior of Winterfell.”

No doubt we’ll get to see Sansa in that armour by the time episode three rolls around. Let’s just hope that both her and Lyanna Mormont survive the Battle of Winterfell, and get to take their armour off when the fighting is done.

Game of Thrones airs on Sunday nights on HBO in the US and Monday mornings (and again in the evening) in the UK on Sky Atlantic and Now TV.